VINEGAR HILL THEATRE
Charlottesville's art cinema since 1976
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220 West Market Street,
About the Theatre
History of the Theatre:
Vinegar Hill Theatre opened on Valentine's Day 1976 in a converted automobile showroom in downtown Charlottesville. Ann Porotti and her then-husband Chief Gordon modeled the theater after repertory cinemas in larger cities and other college towns like the Biograph in Washington, the Coolidge Corner in Boston, and the Theater for the Living Arts in Philadelphia. For its first eight years of operation, Vinegar Hill followed the repertory format: classic American movies and new foreign films were shown in double features, with one pairing on Monday and Tuesday, another on Wednesday and Thursday, and a third on Friday through Sunday with the occasional midnight show of yet another movie. Everyone seemed to have the Vinegar Hill calendar on their refrigerator, and the 219-seat theater sold out regularly on weekends.
In an attempt to help further revive downtown Charlottesville, Porotti and Gordon opened an Italian restaurant up the street called Fellini's, then promptly divorced. Porotti kept the theater, and Gordon kept the restaurant.
In the early eighties the film distribution industry began changing: the Hollywood studios that had been renting their old movies increased their prices, and new film distribution companies like United Artists Classics began acquiring a new crop of American independent films and renting them for top dollar. In addition, the videocassette recorder and cable television made access to classic Hollywood films easier. So Vinegar Hill reinvented itself as a first-run cinema showing independent and new foreign films, initially in the three double feature per week format, then less frequently.
By the mid-nineties, downtown Charlottesville was thriving, but Fellini's restaurant was closed. The Regal Cinema chain opened a six-screen theater a few blocks away, and Vinegar Hill's business suffered as it was forced to compete for art films with the second-largest theater chain in the country. It stopped publishing a calendar so that it could book available films more quickly. It hired a film booker in New York for greater buying power. And, along with her new husband David Wyatt, Porotti opened a small Italian restaurant attached to the front of the theater building called L'Avventura.
Vinegar Hill survives as many of the theaters of its kind have closed, in part because of real estate prices, the new film distribution landscape, and the changing audience for entertainment. Vinegar Hill's regular programming is less varied and innovative than it used to be, but screenings like the Virginia Film Festival, the Virginia Festival Film Society, and now the Vinegar Hill Film Festival add interest to the mix.
About the Theatre:
Vinegar Hill Theatre has one auditorium that seats 219 people. The auditorium and restrooms are handicapped accessible. Although there are steps between the front door and the main lobby level, a wheelchair ramp allows direct access to the auditorium, lobby and restrooms. The ramp is located to the left of the front door as one faces the building.
The theatre is equipped with two Century 35mm projectors. Films are shown the old-fashioned way, with the projectionist smoothly "changing over" from one reel to another with the aid of visual cue marks on the film. It is the only theater in Charlottesville using this system, which results in less wear and dirt on the film print. It is also the only commercial theater in Charlottesville to have one projectionist for one auditorium, resulting in the fewest projection problems in town.
The theatre also has a Hortson 16mm projector for small-format films.
The theatre's sound system consists of a 1999 Smart Mod VI audio processor with Dolby SR emulation driving Hafler amplifiers and Altec and Acoustic Research loudspeakers for five channels of audio (screen left, center, and right; left surround and right surround) plus subwoofer. Sound is read from the optical soundtrack on 35mm film by Kelmar reverse-scan visible-light LED readers. The system is adjusted regularly to insure its proper operation.
The theatre may be rented for screenings or meetings. Please contact us for details.
Copyright ©2004-2006 L'Avventura Inc.